Our "Must See" TV

Since the new TV season begins in a few weeks I thought it would be fun to give a rundown of what shows I never miss and consider to be my weekly "must-see."

On Wednesday evenings I watch the previous night's episode of Glee, as hubby just isn't a fan of musicals, let alone a show that involves it's characters breaking out into song regularly. Anyways... I joined the bandwagon a bit late, catching up with it just after the 2nd half of the 1st season began. The song covers are usually pretty good and fun though, the cast is likable and overall the show is just fun in general (despite the fact they literally constantly hit you over the head that Kurt is gay - yes, we know, we figured that out that in the first few episodes...).

We regularly watch most of NBC's Thursday night comedy block, never missing episodes of Community or The Office.

I honestly think Community is one of the best, funniest shows that's come out in the last few years, however it keeps getting snubbed at the Emmy's for shows like Modern Family and Glee (which I find to be more of a drama than a comedy, and while Modern Family is funny, I find myself laughing at and enjoying Community so much more!). It's smart, clever, and being the nostalgia lover that I am, I LOVE all the movie and pop culture references/parodies. It's definitely one of my favorites and one that I look forward to watching every week.

And of course The Office. Some say this one jumped the shark after season 3, however we didn't start watching it until the end of season 5, catching up the following summer when TBS ran it in nightly syndication. We both enjoy it though - being an ensemble cast it's pretty good and the characters are each funny and entertaining in their own ways. Season 8 starts this fall, with the departure of Steve Carell as boss Michael Scott and someone new taking his place - should be interesting to see how they keep it going and whether or not this will be the final season.

Our Sunday night shows vary depending on what part of the year it is.

In the late fall we're now watching The Walking Dead on AMC. Starting out like 28 Days Later, an officer wakes up in the hospital weeks after suffering a near-fatal gunshot wound. The place seems to be deserted though, however he soon meets other survivors and learns about the zombie apocalypse that occurred while he was out of it. Banding with other survivors this series based on a graphic novel series shows their fight for survival against hordes of zombies. While it does take moments from various zombie movies we've seen before (such as being stuck in a mall-like department store a la Dawn of the Dead or whole beginning of the pilot episode feeling like 28 Days Later deja vu) it is a fun, suspenseful, entertaining series if you don't mind zombie fiction.

In the spring comes "Game of Thrones" on HBO. This is a new series which just finished it's debut season in June, however it looks promising with lots of "omg!" moments and twists you most likely didn't see coming. It takes place in a medieval like universe with the Starks, Lannisters and Targaryens being the prominent families in the story, all vying for control of the 7 kingdoms of the realm. I wasn't sold on it prior to seeing it, but hubby really wanted to check it out so we did and I got hooked - we're both reading the books the series is based on now too (The Song of Ice and Fire books by George RR Martin).

And summer... we're True Blood fans in this house, however after reading all the books in the series (The Sookie Stackhouse books by Charlaine Harris) a lot of the changes they make in the show do irritate me (for example hardly any of the 1st episode of season 4 was in the book). Despite that though, it's still entertaining, I just have to keep reminding myself that they're 2 different things and that the show is very loosely based on the books, using the characters and the premise of the main storyline from each book rather than sticking to it exactly (however they did do a good job of sticking pretty close to the book in the 1st season!).

We also watch Entourage on HBO in the summer as well, however this is the final season which is sad for us as we just got caught up on the series just before last season (7) started. Somewhat based from the experiences that Marky Mark Wahlberg went through when he first started out in Hollywood, the show follows the rise and fall and return of hot young actor Vincent Chase, his has-been actor brother Johnny "Drama", his best friend turned manager Eric (aka E), their friend Turtle (who acts more as driver and gopher) and Vincent's agent Ari Gould. I've written about it before - it's basically the male equivalent of Sex and the City, and I enjoy it just as much!

Other shows we watch regularly when we can include Tosh.0 on Comedy Central - while there is Web Soup on G4, Daniel Tosh's clip show of some of the craziest internet videos and sensations is just so much more funnier to us; and South Park - I LOVE the satire on current events that this show has, and while Family Guy gets old after awhile, South Park tends to keep itself pretty fresh.

I'm sure you've noticed there's no reality shows on here - I'll admit, a few years ago I was a VH1 "Celebreality" junkie, watching every Surreal Life and "...of Love" spin-off as well as the other "trashy" reality game shows they had like Tool Academy and I Love Money, however since one of their repeat contestants turned out to be a murderer they cut back on the "trashy" reality shows and went more for Real-Housewives and follow-a-celeb-around-with-a-camera reality shows and those just aren't my thing - I like the crazy competitions and the trashiness of it all and VH1 just hasn't been the same since they changed their reality TV format.

Anyways, what are your "must see" shows that you never miss an episode of??